We need an announcer's revolution

[kenvin100]

There I said it.

I want to compare two pieces of footage from the past and the present

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hMp65SzyTU

1998 King of the Ring-you hear JR describe the horror of Mankind falling off cell. Now this spot was planned, but hear the emotion coming out of JR. The serious fear in his voice. Now, I want to go to last night's hell in a cell match.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWI2l4ZbdA4

Was I the only one pissed at the 0:54 mark. Are you serious Michael? Please tell me you have to read a script to watch a man leap off the cell!?

Not going to lie, this left a bad taste in my mouth. I have to ask myself if Smackdown's Mauro was calling this match, he would've done it more justice. Not saying Cole should be fired but this is ridiculous. We need an announcer's revolution.

 

[Navi]

The announce team has been the drizzling shits for a long time. Mauro definitely gets you amped, Cole on the other hand yea.

I heard though he has Vince yelling in his ear telling him what to say, so make that of it what you will.

 

[MERPER]

The announce team is the least of WWE's problems right now.

They aren't good, they aren't awful. The product is awful and they have to announce it.

Fix the product and the announcers would be better.

 

[Radical Canadian Goose]

The announce team has been the drizzling shits for a long time. Mauro definitely gets you amped, Cole on the other hand yea.

I heard though he has Vince yelling in his ear telling him what to say, so make that of it what you will.

Exactly this. I have gotten to the point where I want to watch wrestling matches with no volume. Between unwarranted chants (This is Awesome and Holy Shit have been overdone), and the horrible commentary, I can't deal with noise anymore while I am watching a match.

JBL is the worst commentator I have ever heard. Michale Cole and Byron Saxton are both so bland. Both obviously read off script, and it's disgusting. Jerry Lawler needs to retire, 7 years ago.

The only bright spot is Mauro Ranallo, and I don't have much hope for him either, as long as Vince is around.

Vince needs to back off and let the commentators do their thing. The product would look and sound more believable, if it doesn't sound so scripted.

 

[Khalifa]

JBL is the worst commentator I have ever heard. Michale Cole and Byron Saxton are both so bland. Both obviously read off script, and it's disgusting. Jerry Lawler needs to retire, 7 years ago

.

I have said it before and I will say it again. I don't understand how almost everyone hates JBL as a commentator. I think he is great. He plays off the bully heel well I think, and it works because you can kind of seeing JBL being like that in real life to people who don't know what they are talking about. On top of that, he actually knows what he is talking about and hardly ever makes a mistake. Some of the ridiculous stuff he says I just love, especially when he gets in full on roast mode like he did with Byron Saxton last night in the ladder match or Y2AJ match. I'll go as far as to say that JBL is easily my most favourite commentator of all time.

I don't like Saxton. He is kind of just there it seems and that he would actually be better off in Michael Coles play by play position than sitting there and throwing a fact or two in when he isn't gettin roasted.

 

[Azane]

The announce team is the least of WWE's problems right now.

They aren't good, they aren't awful. The product is awful and they have to announce it.

Fix the product and the announcers would be better.

Nope, JBL Yelling YOU STILL GOT IT, woke me up from my nap a while ago, it's not the product, it's the announcers.

What I really hated last night during Mania, was watching all 3 of the announcers flat out reading scripts during the Shane and Main Event matches, as they weren't just holding the "scriptS" they were legit reading them while the camera had them in view.

And Saxton is also the biggest Kiss-ass since Josh Mathews.

Michael Cole embodies everything wrong with WWE, with him trying to get over more than the product, especially he was doing VINTAGE and Other stuff to put himself over the talent.

I will give points against the product though, hearing "Until Roman Reigns" "Roman Reigns match later" "ROMAN REIGNS SHUCKY DUCKY QUACK QUACK" - The Announcers need to stop calling the future, and focus on the match, something I read in the leaked announcer notes from like 7 years ago that said something along the lines of 'don't call the action that you see, the audience is already watching', and it makes sense on why the announcers are busy saying stupid stuff, because they don't want them saying things normal people would?

Commentary is just another point where NXT is miles ahead of the main roster on, and I don't even like Graves at all, but the style that he and Phelps follow, make the product overall more enjoyable than muting. Still beats Schiavone telling us how Scott Norton vs The Disco inferno might be the best match in the history of wrestling every night.

 

[Mr.Maikeru_Sawyer]

.

I have said it before and I will say it again. I don't understand how almost everyone hates JBL as a commentator. I think he is great. He plays off the bully heel well I think, and it works because you can kind of seeing JBL being like that in real life to people who don't know what they are talking about.

I have seen him on Financial panels on CNBC OR MSNBC not sure which one but the person he is calling WWE matches is the type of man he was on those panels. Just listening to the show and not watching it you could almost imagine that you are watching RAW/PPV. he is arrogant self absorbed individual who isn't afraid to tell someone what he things of them

 

[dsotm5150]

There's just no real chemistry between the 3 of them, not to mention Cole spends 90% of his time shilling #whatever. I realize we live in a social media world but trust me you don't have to mention it every time someone pulls of a maneuver. JBL sounds like a bitter narcissistic old man, when he's not tooting his own horn, he's usually attempting to bury someome although I have seen him praise and bury someone in the same sentence so those Human Resources 101 classes are paying off. I don't even know why Lawler is still there. He doesn't have chemistry with anybody, working with JR was when he was at his best and even that was mainly JR

 

[Sean Valjean]

As long as Vince is in their ears, it doesn't matter who's on commentary because they will be told to say whatever he tells them. The root of the problem needs to be corrected before addressing the actual commentators.

I can't remember if this is true, but I recall hearing a few years ago that Triple H took over for Vince on commentary steering for a bit, and he allowed the commentators to largely call stuff on their own and only got into their ears during commercial breaks. If that's true, that needs to come back. From what I understand, it can be extremely challenging to call a match when Vince is shouting instructions non-stop (just ask Foley). Give them room to breathe, let them react naturally to things instead of reciting carefully worded lines.

Michael Cole can be quite good when he's not being micromanaged. Proof of this is his commentary during the Beast in the East special last year, which I thought was some of his best work in years. He focused FAR more on the wrestling, sprinkled informative little tidbits about Japanese wrestling history, and took everything more seriously in general. From what I heard, Vince wasn't in the commentator's ears that night.

So yeah, get Vince out of their headsets and cut down on the constant instructions and the improvements should happen immediately.

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

Raw : Mike Tenay and Corey Graves.

Smackdown : Michael Cole and William Regal


Two man teams work way better than three man teams as history shows in the commentating table. Three is over-crowded and distracting unless all three are interesting. Unfortunately, Cole-JBL-Saxton team are not interesting and have gotten stale IMO.

I think Cole is a fine commentator when he shoots from the cuff and doesn't have to follow a script. The thing about Cole is that he's being compared to one of the greatest commentators of all time J.R and that's not fair. A lot of people at the table will pale in comparison to the emotion J.R brought every single week to WWE.

Saxton doesn't seem to be improving for some reason. I had high hopes for Saxton as he seemed like he would turn out to be a fine voice for the future....but he still has trouble with amping up his volume for some reason. I don't know what it is, electrocute the guy when something happens to get him going.

 

[Azane]

Raw : Mike Tenay and Corey Graves.

Smackdown : Michael Cole and William Regal


Two man teams work way better than three man teams as history shows in the commentating table. Three is over-crowded and distracting unless all three are interesting. Unfortunately, Cole-JBL-Saxton team are not interesting and have gotten stale IMO.

I think Cole is a fine commentator when he shoots from the cuff and doesn't have to follow a script. The thing about Cole is that he's being compared to one of the greatest commentators of all time J.R and that's not fair. A lot of people at the table will pale in comparison to the emotion J.R brought every single week to WWE.

Saxton doesn't seem to be improving for some reason. I had high hopes for Saxton as he seemed like he would turn out to be a fine voice for the future....but he still has trouble with amping up his volume for some reason. I don't know what it is, electrocute the guy when something happens to get him going.

To be fair, how often does anything exciting happen anymore? Shane jumping off the cage? Michael Cole reading a script on camera as it happened was the focal point, Byron couldn't react, because he wasnt scripted to react.

Saxton reminds me a lot of Coach and Cole, in that he's just a needlessly shilling asskisser, and the only reason he's in the position he is, is because he's followed the rules and the script to the T forever, and now his talentless commentary is forced on us every week.

The entire night last night, all I wanted, was for the 3 Commentators to shut up so I could hear chants, but no "JBL: HE HIT HIM IN THE LEG MICHAEL IN THE LEG DID YOU SEE THAT HE HIT HIM IN THE LEG, BY GOD THIS REMINDS ME OF THIS OTHER TIME" - This was about 30 seconds of him repeating a "He hit him in the leg" really loudly, as if he was actually trying to piss off viewers.

Between the crowd mics being muted for Reigns, and the commentators, they might as well film wrestling in a studio now, if they don't want the fans to matter.

 

[The Warlord]

There I said it.

I want to compare two pieces of footage from the past and the present

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hMp65SzyTU

1998 King of the Ring-you hear JR describe the horror of Mankind falling off cell. Now this spot was planned, but hear the emotion coming out of JR. The serious fear in his voice. Now, I want to go to last night's hell in a cell match.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWI2l4ZbdA4

Was I the only one pissed at the 0:54 mark. Are you serious Michael? Please tell me you have to read a script to watch a man leap off the cell!?

Not going to lie, this left a bad taste in my mouth. I have to ask myself if Smackdown's Mauro was calling this match, he would've done it more justice. Not saying Cole should be fired but this is ridiculous. We need an announcer's revolution.

You cant have a revolution without someone getting fired. Cole, JBL and Lawler all need to go. They can stay with the WWE and work backstage but their announcing careers need to end.

Bring back JR and pair him with Mauro and that would be one hell of a team. Or at the very minimum...use them for PPVs and Raw...Cole can do Smackdown.

But I agree..,big changes need to happen. In sports entertainment the announcing is almost as big as the script and talent. They need to get this shit right.